The present invention relates to a vehicle roof structure having a longitudinal center beam and left and right removable roof lids.
One conventional example is shown in FIGS. 6-8. (A similar roof structure is disclosed in Japanese provisional publication No. 59-186735.) A roof frame structure 1 of this example has a longitudinal center beam 2 separating left and right roof openings 3. Front and rear receiving members 4 each having left and right latch holes 5 are fixed to an upper surface of the center beam 2 by screws 6. Front and rear latch plates 8 are fixed to an underside of each of left and right roof lids 7 by screws 9. In a closed state, the front and rear latch plates 8 of each lid are inserted in the latch holes 5 of the front and rear receiving members 4, and the inner ends of both lids substantially abut on each other above the center beam 2 so that the center beam 2 is concealed under the closed roof surface. Each of the lids 7 further has front and rear lock rods 10 which are projected into lock holes 11 of the frame structure, and retracted by operating a handle (not shown). There are further provided weatherstrips 12 for abutting against the undersides of the lids 7.
In this roof structure, each lid 7 is installed and removed by inserting and extracting the latch plates 8 into and from the receiving members 4 while lifting up the outer end of the lid. In this case, each lid 7 tends to slip inwardly into an improper position shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 8. In this improper position, the latch plate 8 is inserted into the receiving member 4 improperly so that it becomes difficult to extract the latch plate 8, and the inner end of the lid 7 is easily blemished.